New novel out – Where the Dust Settles by Duncan Ewing Graham

A novel

A gripping battle for justice – and life – against Big Asbestos

By Duncan Ewing Graham

“An important book – in my judgment, a very important book – that deserves to be read and studied widely.”

“It is a morality tale, Dickensian in its scope. But it is also a terrific, entertaining read. I devoured it in a weekend.”

Roy Williams, author, lawyer and lecturer

Do you know what you’ve got within you? If it’s deadly asbestos, you’d better have what it takes to fight for what’s right.

It was while traipsing through the heat and dust of Disaster Gorge, a narrow slit between terraced walls of rock, perpendicular to the spine of the Hamersley Range, that Harry noticed a steel-blue sheen in an escarpment, the like of which he had never seen. Venturing to the floor of the canyon below, he found chunks of red crusted rock with a core of blue grey. He picked up a fist-sized piece and noticed the straight-fibred blue material beneath the red-brown shell. The fibres lay in perfect parallel lines like miniature organ pipes. Harry plucked at them and the fibrous strands expanded, breaking up into sharp blue needles as he teased the strands further. It was magical stuff. He looked up at the cliffs and the blue mineral that ran all through the narrow gorge. Whatever it was, Harry figured it must be valuable.

Sydney barrister and medical doctor Dr Duncan Graham SC is likely to know more about the asbestos industry and asbestos medicine than any other person in Australia.

From his many years of work in asbestos litigation, Duncan has acquired an exhaustive knowledge of the scientific literature about asbestos-related diseases. He has cross-examined, examined and interviewed many leading international experts on the subject. He’s been involved in a number of test cases about dust diseases and acted in many of the leading test cases. He previously worked as a doctor and then as a solicitor in commercial litigation.

‘The lessons that we learned about asbestos keep on being forgotten. The current silicosis epidemic shows this to be true. But it’s not only with building products. Manufacturers of other products, such as in the medical device industry, appear to put profits above safety. Someone comes up with an idea, like the miracle fibre asbestos was meant to be, and then there’s a rush to market without fully exploring the risks,’ Duncan says.

His novel Where the Dust Settles is the history of asbestos exploitation in Australia.

Historical fiction with plenty of courtroom drama, it includes Duncan’s experience in asbestos litigation and is based in part on actual well-known events, the participants involved in them, publications, researchers, places, legal cases and matters of public record.

All names, characters, conversations and the places and events in which the story unfolds are, however, products of Duncan’s imagination.

Where the Dust Settles tells the fictional story of James and Jenny Henderson, who came to Australia from the UK in the 1950s looking for a new life after the horrors of war.

On the long sea journey they were drawn together, and fell in love.

Eventually Jenny and James settled in Sydney, had a family, and worked hard for a brighter future.

Little did they know as a young married couple that in forty years’ time, they’d be fighting for their lives and for justice in a court case against two of Australia’s biggest companies.

As I’ve already suggested to you, Sir Archibald, asbestos is a miracle fibre. We have it here in this country and it has the potential to make us all very, very rich. The problem is getting it from outback Western Australia to the eastern states where asbestos cement sheets are made. We think this is urgent. We believe the fibre should be exploited as soon as possible before overseas companies get too much of a stranglehold on our local market. All the fibre used in Australia currently comes from Canada and South Africa at great cost. I expect you know asbestos is used in brake linings, insulation for power stations and the manufacturing industry. Everybody’s using it.

For decades there were whispers of its danger, but its exploitation continued to be swept under the carpet, covered up and ignored by corporate giants and politicians.

James watched as the men in the asbestos gang grabbed the bags of

raw asbestos and by brute force lifted and emptied them into bins. The

hessian sacks leaked their contents over the heads and shoulders of the men

as they went about their tasks. After the fibre was emptied into the bins,

it was shoved down chutes into what Jack Taylor said was the hammer

mill, which pulverised the fibre into fine, feathery particles, which were

then blown through ducts into storage hoppers.

When asbestos cases started flooding in in the 1980s, big end lawyer Bruce Fraser thinks he can springboard into partnership and fame with a win for his client, Henry King Industries Limited, a large asbestos cement manufacturer.

When James Henderson comes to plaintiff’s lawyer Viviana Glosioli, she hopes she can overcome her self-doubt, her boss’s advances and the sausage-factory mentality of her firm to secure a win for him as yet another worker and his family so unfairly taken advantage of.

What unfolds is the ugly truth of asbestos and the legal industry it spawned.

With so much at stake – money, careers, reputations, lives, James’ legal battle may change the law forever.

 You’ve done your homework. Yes, it found cases in people with no occupational exposure to asbestos but who lived within half a mile of the asbestos factory. It also recognised that exposure to dust brought home by relatives working with asbestos could cause mesothelioma. It was a staggering report. There was also a clear connection with crocidolite. It was lethal. Although I was unaware of any case of mesothelioma in the Henry King workforce, it was probably only a matter of time before I would.

Based on real events in modern history, Where the Dust Settles is a gripping read and a story that’s extremely relevant today.

‘Governments are complicit despite what they may say or the legislation they think passing will put an end to the problem. The story of asbestos is as relevant now as it has been for decades. Informed consent is said to be important for patients receiving medical treatment so they have a choice about whether to take on a risk or not. With asbestos and many other products, companies took away the ability for ordinary men and women to decide what was best for them. That’s at the heart of this story,’ Duncan says..

Where will the dust settle after all is said and done?

***

Published by Broadcast Books, May 2025, Where the Dust Settles is available to order online and at all good bookstores.

To interview or speak with Duncan Graham, please contact media publicist Nicole Webb at nicole@nicolewebbonline.com

Review

‘What Duncan has written is the definitive account – in novelistic form – of a genuine Australian tragedy. Unlike all previous accounts of the use of asbestos in this country – whether non-fiction books, legal judgments, journalistic efforts, to say nothing of public relations spin – this book has certain unique qualities and its greatest virtue is that it tells the story warts and all – and yet is eminently fair.’

Roy Williams, litigator, Sydney University medallist, lecturer, historian, author of several books and former book reviewer for the Weekend Australian

Trade paperback

RRP AU$39.99

552 pages

ISBN 978-1-7638250-3-1

Ebook RRP: 24.99

ISBN: 978-1-7638250-2-4

Website: https://duncangraham.com.au/

About the author

Dr Duncan E Graham SC is a writer, senior counsel at the NSW Bar and a medical doctor.

Born in Townsville, Queensland, he grew up in Brisbane. Duncan completed a medical degree at the University of Queensland and then spent three years commencing and then abandoning further study to become a dermatologist, surgeon, psychiatrist and radiologist. Moving to Hobart in Tasmania, it was while poring over the finer points of radiation physics that he thought he saw the light. He had not forgotten what his old history teacher had said and enrolled in a law degree at the University of Tasmania, spending the better part of the 1980s studying.

Throughout his working life, Duncan has continued to write when he has found time. Upon graduating from medicine, his mother-in-law gave him the sage advice to write as a hobby while doing something worthwhile like neurology.

In 1991, Duncan and his family moved to Melbourne where he commenced work at Arthur Robinson & Hedderwicks (now Allens) in the securities, mergers and acquisitions department. He was no sooner there, than he wanted to leave to become a merchant banker. He obtained a certificate in financial markets from the Securities Institute of Australia to assist. He then decided litigation was a better choice and transferred to the firm’s litigation department. There, Duncan worked on cases for former asbestos products manufacturer, James Hardie Industries Limited, and other product liability cases, including those for tobacco manufacturers.

In 1993, Duncan again got itchy feet and decided to become a barrister in Victoria. At the Victorian Bar, he was briefed in medical negligence cases and continued to be involved in James Hardie’s asbestos litigation. By that time, NSW had established a specialist tribunal to hear and determine dust disease cases, including asbestos cases. Duncan was told that that was where the action was. In 1995, he moved to Sydney to join the NSW Bar so that he could do more asbestos litigation.

For over a decade, Duncan acted almost exclusively in cases involving people suffering from asbestos-related diseases. His knowledge of the history of the asbestos industry, the medical issues concerning asbestos, the role of governments and big business, and the key issues in asbestos litigation is unparalleled.

In 1996, Duncan became a founding Fellow of the Australian College of Legal Medicine. He also joined the Medico-Legal Society of NSW.

At the end of 1997, after the birth of his fourth child, Duncan thought it was a good idea to return to the life of a barrister. He rejoined the NSW Bar. He again acted for James Hardie and other companies such as BHP and CRA in dust diseases litigation, but his practice became increasingly focused on medical negligence and medical law, so that by 2000, he was essentially working full-time in that area, appearing mainly for plaintiffs in civil litigation or for families in coronial inquests into deaths following medical treatment.

It was through his medical negligence work that Duncan was introduced to medical device and pharmaceutical class actions. He has been involved in a number of product liability class actions, and recently appeared in two long hearings in the Federal Court – the De Puy metal hip class action and the Ethicon vaginal mesh class action.

His practice now focuses on medical negligence and medical law. He has represented hundreds of people injured through the negligence of hospitals and doctors. Duncan has a reputation for taking on challenging cases, often involving complex scientific evidence.

Now that his four children have left school, he feels he can devote time to his first passion. His first book Why Patients Sue Doctors was co-authored with David Richards and the late Bernard Kelly, both doctors and expert witnesses he met during his work in medical litigation.

Duncan’s love of writing was instilled by his late father, a compulsive but unsuccessful editor of Duncan’s school essays.

Where the Dust Settles is out now.

He lives in Sydney with his wife.